1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for controlling a home network device by using a universal web application in a home network environment.
2. Description of Related Art
With the popularity of home networks, a conventional personal computer (PC)-oriented network environment increasingly extends to an environment including electric home appliances using various lower network communication techniques. Accordingly, home network middleware standards, such as universal plug and play (UPnP) and digital living network alliance (DLNA), have been proposed to network these home appliances in a unified manner according to an Internet protocol (IP).
DLNA, which is a collaboration allowing electronic devices within the home to connect to one another, builds interoperable networked platforms so that devices designed according to DLNA interoperability guidelines can freely share media content, such as music, photos, and videos, across a home network.
UPnP defines a plurality of UPnP devices, which provide services, and UPnP control point applications, called control point modules, which control the plurality of UPnP devices. A control point module refers to an application that is mounted on a device provided with a user interface, such as a PC or a television (TV) (digital TV (DTV) or IPTV), and controls a plurality of UPnP devices. Such a control point module discovers various types of devices according to an external input, describes functions of the discovered devices, and controls services provided by the devices according to simple object access protocol (SOAP).
A UPnP/DLNA device, such as a PC, TV, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, network equipment, printer, and any one of various types of audio/video devices connected to a home network, notifies a control point module about an event occurring therein. Also, the UPnP/DLNA device provides a presentation web page to the control point module so that the control point module can control the UPnP/DLNA device and inquire about the state of the UPnP/DLNA device by using the presentation web page.
As described above, a conventional method of controlling a UPnP/DLNA device in a home network uses a UPnP/DLNA control point application called a control point module or a static presentation web page provided by the home network device.
A home network environment using a remote user interface (UI) consists of a remote UI client (RUIC), a remote UI server (RUIS), and UPnP/DLNA devices. Examples of a conventional remote UI technique include an expandable home theater (XHT), Crawford engineering associates (CEA) 201.4, and an extended remote technology (XRT).